See Architect Tom Kundig’s Latest Masterpiece

The Seattle architect conceives a cliffside dwelling as breathtaking as its surroundings

Last fall architect Tom Kundig found himself holding a celebratory glass of Champagne among a well-heeled throng at New York’s National Academy, a Beaux Arts jewel on upper Fifth Avenue. He’d just been inducted as a National Academician—an accolade that has been bestowed upon eminent artists and architects since 1825—and his fellow honorees included the likes of Yoko Ono, Mickalene Thomas, and architect (and friend) Rick Joy. It was rarefied company, and Kundig, who has been piling up a raft of laurels as one of today’s most original talents in residential design, was reveling in the moment.

The slender structure dramatically bridges a shallow ravine, which is frequently traversed by wild animals heading down to the river below. Photo: Benjamin Benschneider

This scene was a long, long way from Spokane, Washington, where Kundig was raised. (His nonagenarian father, architect Moritz Kundig, still lives there.) The high-desert city, about 20 miles from the Idaho line, is blast-furnace hot in summer and snowed under in winter. It is where the young Kundig worked as an assistant for a sculptor named Harold Balazs, absorbed the vernacular of the region’s farming and mining structures, and got deep into 1960s hot-rod culture. Equally important, Kundig developed a lifelong ardor for nature at its most rugged and unforgiving. “I recognize that landscape completely,” Kundig says, discussing his abiding connection to the area. “You could drop me out of the sky and I could walk on the snow blindfolded and know I was in Spokane. It just has a certain crunch to it, and a certain squeak.”

So when an attorney and avid fly fisherman named Paul B. Mack emailed Kundig out of the blue a decade ago and described how he wanted to build a house on 20 acres of pristine ponderosa-pine forestland he had purchased just outside Spokane, the architect knew immediately what Mack was talking about. The area is where you go to camp, hike, raft, and ride bikes. It is populated by moose, bobcat, white-tailed deer, and the occasional screeching cougar—not to mention local teenagers who come to do what teenagers do. “It’s one of the drinking spots for kids from the nearby high school,” Mack says with a laugh.

A screen print by Robert Motherwell is mounted above the fireplace in the living room, where a Roche Bobois sofa and dining table are joined by a pair of Charles Pollock armchairs by Knoll. Tom Kundig installed a geothermal heating system beneath the concrete floors. Photo: Benjamin Benschneider

Kundig soon made the trip from Seattle, where he is a partner in the celebrated firm Olson Kundig, to walk the property with his new, up-for-anything client. The two men had an immediate mind meld: They would build a 5,200-square-foot, three-bedroom house of steel, glass, and concrete, right on the edge of what is known as a rimrock—in this case, a basalt cliff with a sheer 300-foot drop to the Spokane River below.The resulting house, which Mack and his wife, Suzanne, christened Rimrock, is every bit as daredevil as it sounds. It was a fitting challenge for Kundig, a mild-mannered guy who enjoys an adrenaline rush now and then: skiing at high elevations, tooling around on a Ducati, taking in the eardrum-splitting ritual that is Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats, where homemade rocketlike vehicles break land-speed records. “He’s got the exuberance of a kid,” says Mack. “You text or email him and there are immediate replies—with exclamation points. He infects you with a sense of excitement.”

The excitement is palpable at Rimrock. Strung along the brink of the cliff, the slender structure acts as a bridge, dramatically straddling a natural groove in the terrain, an eons-old thoroughfare used by animals making their way between the forest above and the river below. “They’re always crossing underneath the house,” Mack says. Sometimes these four-footed neighbors stop to take a drink in the property’s narrow reflecting pool, in which Kundig placed a stainless-steel sculpture by his mentor, Balazs, whose work is championed by the Macks. (One day they spotted a moose nuzzling the piece.)

Tom Kundig designed the pendant lights in the kitchen, which features black-granite countertops, Dornbracht sink fittings, and a Wolf range. The glass case displayshand-carved sculptures from Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo: Benjamin Benschneider

As the house thrusts across that gully, it slopes gently upward, giving the impression of a creature stretching its long neck into the sky—and creating a striking architectural crescendo. Adding to the effect, Kundig cantilevered that last section of house out over the landscape and placed the master bedroom inside, providing the Macks with forever views of the wilderness. “You feel like you’re in a tree fort,” the architect says.

The house is mostly clad in weathered steel—a Kundig signature—its industrial Richard Serra–like patina contrasted by strips and expanses of glass. Kundig compares Rimrock’s overall design to “a Tootsie Pop—hard on the outside, soft on the inside.” Throughout the interiors,warm mahogany accents offset oiled-steel beams and polished-concrete floors, while a pair of carved-wood doors (rescued from a church) adds an artisanal flourish. Since moving in three years ago, the Macks have been gradually installing favorite pieces from their art collection: a Victor Vasarely in a guest room, a Robert Motherwell above the fireplace in the glass-walled living/dining area.

Perched on a basalt ledge, the home boasts spectacular views of the winding Spokane River. Photo: Benjamin Benschneider